Divinity II: Developer's Cut

Dragons: they have been hunted, they have been slain, but now the hour to strike back has come. Break free from the confines of the human body and take to the skies in this epic RPG adventure that challenges your wits and pits you against a thousand foes.

is one of those older games that really surprised me. I could describe it as Skyrim's little brother who chose a not-so-open-world but more story driven style.I really didn't expect much of a game that I bought for 4,99€ but was this a surprise.

TL;DR version.

Old visuals, mediocre 'on foot' combat, but awesome dragon combat, somewhat good storyline, lore-heavy story, and again, dragon batles. Don't buy if you hate speaking but love beating because there is a lot of speaking involved.

Oh and here are some numbers.

Category

Rating

Graphics

7

Gameplay

7

Story

8

Dragons

10

First of all, I would like to say that the game is old and the visuals definitely show it. Somewhat washed out textures and pixelated shadows are noticable. Although, the lightning, motion blur effects and character armor models look pretty good. The dragon battle sequences is where the visuals really shine (literally).

But honestly, who cares about graphics?

If I could describe the game's genre, Journey RPG comes to mind.Whenever you kill some goblins, bandits or black ring soldiers, they are dead and they wont ever come back to life. In other words- the mobs in the game don't respawn (with DLC as an exception), which surprised me but it made sense as I went on. In fact, it's an important part of the game since it forces you to explore the game world. Also, as you progress through the story some areas become inaccessible which is why it's not fully open world.

Speaking of exploration, the game is begging to be explored and will punish you if you don't. Meeting npc's and questing is an essential part of the game. There are no markers or pointers which point the player straight to the direction of the objective. Most of the time questing means solving a puzzle and there are a lot, and I mean a lot, of puzzles. When exploring, the player can get gems and ores for enchanting, plants for potion making, money for bartering and most the most important skill books, which give skill points.

Let's get this out of the way, you'll become a dragon, that's half the reason why people buy this game ^^.Sadly, first ~10h of the game you'll be spending becoming a dragon, which is a good thing because it adds to the character development. Oh, and once you morph for the first time it feels amazing :).Dragon gameplay sequences are the most fun by far. Shooting fireballs, releasing novas and just burning the living hell out of anything that opposes you is just as fun as it sounds.

On the other hand, 'on-foot' combat feels old and stiff. I've only played as a full build, classic warrior so I have no idea about archer or mage classes. Also, there are no definite classes, it is possible to make various hybrid classes as you are allowed to spend your skill points where ever you want.

One of other important things is the verticality of the game. Using the dragon form to reach different heights to access caves, dungeons, abandoned houses etc. allows the game to feel like an open world. But it's semi-open world at best due to the reason listed above.

One of most important aspects of this game is the humor. A lot of dialogue options are hilarious. The game sometimes doesn't take itself seriously and simply makes fun of itself.

All in all, I only recommend the game to patient people, who can tolerate older graphics and who don't mind spending 50% of the game interacting with NPCs and the other 50% burning and, in general, laying waste to the black ring.